Occasionally I have what I just KNOW to be a brilliant idea.
In a flurry of excited, disjointed sentences, I blurt out my thrillingly
awesome thought, only to have my patient, loving husband kindly pull me back
into reality before my head explodes with sheer cleverness.
He’s probably just jealous.
Or maybe selling everything we own and moving into a yurt in
the mountains of Montana in the middle of January wasn’t a great idea (but
people, A YURT!).
If you’ve been following along, you know that I'm working on
self-publishing a children's book. I was thinking, it might add an interesting
visual element if I have some kids I know write out the story and I use my words
in their handwriting for the narrative.
Unfortunately, my husband is currently out of town on a
family emergency, so I need your input: is this a good or bad idea? Why?
The idea is interesting in idea, but bad in practice, because the ... ahem ... variable quality in children's handwriting can make it difficult to read. As a one-off visual element, such as a part of an illustration or as a chapter title, it can work, but having the whole text in a child's handwriting (let alone several children's handwriting) would be visually less-than-optimal for readability, and might be actively unpleasant, depending on the reader.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the text is meant for children, I'd think you'd want it to be as easy and as pleasant for them to read as possible, yes?
I like the imagination element, though. :)
Thanks so much for your input! I hadn't considered the legibility angle at all. You make a great point!
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